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About this blog: I am a native of Alameda County, grew up in Pleasanton and currently live in the house I grew up in that is more than 100 years old. I spent 39 years in the daily newspaper business and wrote a column for more than 25 years in add... (More)

About this blog: I am a native of Alameda County, grew up in Pleasanton and currently live in the house I grew up in that is more than 100 years old. I spent 39 years in the daily newspaper business and wrote a column for more than 25 years in addition to writing editorials for more than 15 years. I have served as a director of many non-profits in the Valley and the broader Bay Area and currently serve as chair of Teen Esteem and on the advisory board of Shepherd?s Gate. I also served as founding chair of Heart for Africa and have travelled to Africa seven times to serve on mission trips. My wife, Betty Gail, has taught at Amador Valley High (from where we both graduated) since 1981. She and I both graduated from the University of California, Berkeley, as did both of my parents and my three siblings. Given that Cal tradition, our daughter went south to the University of Southern California and graduated with a degree in international relations. Since graduation, she has taken three mission trips and will be serving in the Philippines for nine months starting in September. (Hide)

Some election thoughts

Uploaded: Jun 14, 2018

In the race for the 15th Congressional District, incumbent Eric Swalwell (D-Dublin) cruised to an easy spot in the November run-off with 69 percent of the votes cast in unofficial results.
What was a bit surprising was how strongly Republican Rudy Peters of Livermore polled, picking up more than 27 percent with a doctrinaire set of positions.
Brendan St. John of Pleasanton, a former Republican who ran as an independent, got no traction with his more moderate position. He received little more than 3 percent of the vote.
It reminds me of Livermore and its growth wars. There were council members elected on the no-growth ledger who moderated their positions while in office. That prompted the reaction from their former supporters and they failed in re-election campaigns. The saying goes that he who stands in the middle of the road gets run over by both sides.
There was good news in Alameda County where District Attorney Nancy O’Malley easily won re-election over challenger Pamela Price, who has no experience as a prosecutor. She was backed by liberal billionaire George Soros, who targeted a few district attorney races in California. His candidate finished well out of the running in San Diego County as well.
Law enforcement leaders and rank-and-file were very concerned about Price’s candidacy given her pledge not to prosecute misdemeanors. That would have been a disaster for the county.
So, it will be business as usual for the county and, in this case, that’s a good thing.

Learned something new this month. I clicked on an online ad for an outfit called NewChic. It offered very favorable prices on men’s sandals so I ordered a pair. The shipping was $7 on a $35 purchase so not extreme. After concluding the transaction, the shipping info appeared. I was dealing with a Chinese company.
When the sandals arrived, they did not fit. I went through the process of returning them, got the authorization with the note that the company would not pay to return them. The return address was Guangzhou, China. When I asked my neighborhood Pak and Ship owner what it would cost, he said it was more than $40.
My donation is forthcoming.
When I was telling the story, another customer chimed in that she had bought sheets from a company with both United States and offshore operations. Her online deal for bedding was with the English company—same story, shipping here was reasonable—it was prohibitive to return them.
So, buyer beware.

Tim, regarding your sandal story, that's why I prefer to deal with Amazon or another well known reputable company when placing online orders. There are 3rd party sellers on the Amazon website, but I believe that Amazon requires that they adhere to certain rules about customer service and returns, and I have never had any problems buying items from 3rd party sellers on Amazon.

Posted by BrendanForCongress,
a resident of another community,
on Jun 14, 2018 at 1:43 pmBrendanForCongress is a registered user.

Tim:

While in this election it was clear that the comforts of party familiarity was stronger than the uncertainty around an unfamiliar moderate candidate.

As the candidate it's my responsibility to get my name and message out to the voters so I make no excuses. However, I don't believe voters lack the desire for a moderate or independent candidate...I just believe they want one that they know better and can vet more thoroughly before electing them to office.

What is important is the people spoke via their votes and it's what makes our country so great.

Posted by DKHSK,
a resident of Bridle Creek,
on Jun 15, 2018 at 10:58 amDKHSK is a registered user.

"However, I don't believe voters lack the desire for a moderate or independent candidate...I just believe they want one that they know better and can vet more thoroughly before electing them to office."

Yes and no Brendan.

I agree that voters want (and got) an independent candidate in Trump. He is neither conservative, nor a republican in the current definition of each. Heck, I always thought I was conservative until I noticed that most mainstream conservative thought-makers have gone over-the-edge with Never-trump mania and their opinions no longer match mine. They openly advocate for war ALL the time and their foreign policy opinions over the last 30 years have been a disaster.

As for knowing the candidates better and vetting, you were asked more than a few times for your stance on specifics and you refused (or avoided) answering. What Tim said was apt, being "middle-of-the-road" just gets you run over.

Perhaps next time when you engage on the message boards trying to differentiate yourself, you might want to try and engage in debate over those topics with which you are commenting?